The summer of 2018 marks my 19th year volunteering with the Chamber to support the Bear Paw Festival.

Every year I am amazed at what a small group of people – mostly volunteers – can accomplish. Organizing and executing such a large, and every growing/changing festival is a mind-numbing amount of work. I want to give a special thanks and accolades to the Leslie’s Crew, which is the epitome of what a motivated and organized team can make happen.

Let me paint you a familiar scene: You’re at a festival and you just finished a finger-licking-good plate of fair food and you need to dispose of your plate and utensils. You find the nearest trashcan and it’s overflowing, trash strewn about the ground at its base. You’re then left with the uncomfortable choice of adding your trash to the accumulated litter, or carrying around said trash (sticky and/or dripping with grease) until a non-overflowing trashcan can be found. You know where that doesn’t happen? The Bear Paw Festival. Do you know why that doesn’t happen? Because the Leslie’s Crew makes regular runs of all the trashcans to change the bags, including surrounding areas outside their purview.

What happens if someone vomits all over the playground adjoining the Festival area? You know who’s going to clean it up? Leslie’s Crew.

There’s an event that needs to be set up, torn down, moved, or trouble-shot? An unpleasant task pops up that no one else wants to do? You can bet your bum that Leslie’s Crew is in the thick of things, making it right and (sometimes literally) moving their own weight around in the process.

So at Bear Paw 2019, when you see someone running around in t-shirt with “Leslie’s Crew” on the back, take a moment to thank them for their service. (Or at least try to avoid giving nasty glances to the crew riding around on the official Bear Paw ATV – they earn that particular bit of fun, and those trash bags can be HEAVY.) The impeccably clean and well-run festival is made possible through their blood, sweat, tears, and occasional spattering of garbage juice.